Wexham Park Hospital set for over £50million revamp in new trust strategy

More than £50million will be invested into Wexham Park Hospital over the next five years as part of a new healthcare strategy, an NHS trust boss has said.

The Slough hospital will begin a programme to renew ‘tired and old’ wards at around £2million each, operating theatres will be overhauled and a new £9million laboratory added.

NHS Frimley Health Foundation Trust – which runs Wexham Park – plans to modernise the hospital as part of its new-look healthcare strategy, looking into 2030.

The trust’s chief strategy officer James Clarke said: “We are planning to invest a lot of capital over the next five years into Wexham Park Hospital in order to achieve this strategy.”

James Clarke says the trust's new strategy is aimed to provide 'excellent quality' for patients and staff. 

NHS Frimley Health provides treatment for around 1.25million people a year. It has 1,400 beds across its hospitals around 650 of which are based at Wexham Park.

The strategy aims to improve patient experiences by driving down waiting times, offering more modern facilities and ensuring its near 13,500 workforce are supported to be ‘the best people’. 

A new ‘rolling’ ward replacement programme will see the Slough hospital’s 30 wards gradually renovated through a process beginning as part of the new strategy, Mr Clarke said.

“At Wexham we have a number of wards of which some are quite tired and quite old,” he said.

“We’ve got a brand new emergency department at Wexham, which was only built a few years ago, but a lot of our wards are in desperate need of modernising and rebuilding.”

Around £2million has been earmarked for each ward.

Mr Clarke added: “We’ve got a huge opportunity with Wexham, to modernise it - bringing up to times - to move some of the clinical services into that [site].

“An example being we’re building a state-of-the-art cancer drug centre in Wexham over the next 18 months to provide the population with the latest cancer drugs.”

The new £9million laboratory – called an aseptic suite – will produce and prepare medications for patients including chemotherapy drugs, Mr Clarke said.

Mr Clarke joins Slough MP Tan Dhesi and health leaders at the ground breaking for the £25million Slough CDC. 

Other investment includes millions set aside for new solar panels and ‘smart technology’ in operating theatres at Wexham Park and the trust’s Heatherwood Hosptial site in Ascot.

New LED lighting is set to be rolled out inside the Slough hospital and new camera technology installed to replace ticketed car parks outside. 

This investment is in addition to the £25million new Slough Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) set to be completed by the end of this year. The CDC will offer scans and blood tests to help medics diagnose illnesses faster.

The Government has awarded more than £1billion to NHS Frimley Health to build a new hospital. It is set to be one of the first built through the New Hospital Programme in the UK.

But, speaking to the Advertiser, Mr Clarke said the trust’s other sites – Wexham Park Hospital and Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot – were also set to see benefits.

“A lot of people assume our strategy is all about our new hospital in Frimley, because that’s the bit that grabs the top headline, it's a £1billion investment,” Mr Clarke said.

“But it is absolutely multimillion pounds into Wexham and Heatherwood at the same time.”

Heatherwood Hospital opened in 2022 after a near £100million rebuild.

Asked whether the total investment into Wexham Park would be ‘more than £50million’ over the next five years, Mr Clarke said, ‘I think that would be fair, yes’.

The trust’s new overarching strategy, released this month alongside a new clinical strategy, describes an aim ‘to be compassionate, effective, and modern in all that we do’.

It’s four key objectives are: ‘highly satisfied patients, engaged people, modern infrastructure and excellent quality’.

Mr Clarke said the strategy was designed with an aim to improve patient experiences, though he added: “it’s not just about our patients,

“it’s about our people and making sure they’re the best people, it’s about providing modern buildings and infrastructure – and excellent quality.

“All those four are equally important in a way.”